Taken
by irishchic799
Summary: While watching Henry, Reid and his godson are attacked and kidnapped by an unknown assailant. Will the team find them in time to save Reid and Henry or will tragedy strike their family?
1. Chapter 1

"Here are his clothes and some toys and books. This bag has some baby food in it but he can eat regular food too, like fruit and yogurt and oat meal and—"JJ said quickly, shoving everything at Reid.

"JJ, relax" he yawned. "I've taken care of Henry 17 times and I have read 13 texts on child development and child rearing since you asked me to watch him. I have a second hand high chair, stroller, car seat, and crib set up for him and I bought all his favorite foods; applesauce, bananas, raspberry yogurt, oatmeal, macaroni, and even that juice he likes so well. Don't worry. He will be fine. You just have fun on your trip."

"Oh, I know you love him and will take great care of him, Spence," the blonde sighed. "It's just, this is the longest I have ever left Henry with someone other than Will. I'm not worried; I'm just…being a clingy mother, is all."

She leaned in and gave Spencer a hug, which he returned a little awkwardly, and a kiss on the cheek, then passed a drowsy Henry (it was very early and Henry wasn't a morning person) to his godfather after giving the nearly two year old a kiss on the forehead. She thanked Spencer and rushed down the hall to the elevator.

Spencer closed the door to his apartment and took Henry over to the couch, where the pair sat down. Henry rubbed his little eyes with his tiny fists and snuggled into his godfather's embrace, falling asleep almost immediately.

Reid, who wasn't a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, turned sideways so he could bring his feet up onto the couch and lay his head back on the pillow at the armrest of his couch. Keeping one arm on Henry, he used the other to drape the blanket he kept on the back of the couch over the two of them so they could take a nice nap.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Spencer was awoken by something wet and cold hitting his face. As his eyes cracked open, he realized it was actually two somethings. Henry LaMontagne had woken up and was hitting his godfather with his saliva covered hands.

"Henry," Reid admonished lightly, "you really shouldn't hit your godfather with your drooly hands."

Henry just giggled.

"Oh, so that's how you treat your godfather, huh?" the older asked the younger, a strange gleam in his eye. "Well, if that is how you feel, I might just have to…" he trailed off while quickly grabbing the small boy off of his chest and tickling him mercilessly. Henry shrieked with high-pitched baby laughter.

" 'top, Unca 'pesser, 'top!" the boy giggled.

"Ok, ok, little man," 'Unca 'pesser' conceded. "Let's go see if you need changing and then I bet you want something to eat, huh? Mommy said that you were to sleepy to eat before you came here."

"No diapy, no diapy," Henry cried out. "No poopy. Bekfass!"

"Sorry, but I have to check your diaper, Henry," Spencer told the little boy who now had an enormous pout on his face. "If you have a dirty diaper and I do not change it, it could hurt very much later. It'll only take a few minutes."

Indeed it did. Once he had Henry laid down on the queen sized bed, he changed the wet diaper and, in about 3 minutes, the pair was in the kitchen, Reid fixing Henry some oatmeal and himself a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.

Breakfast was uneventful, thankfully. Previous times he had watched Henry over night or at least for the day, his godson had covered him in an assortment of foods including mac and cheese, oatmeal, and pureed squash, just to name a few.

After Spencer had wiped off Henry's face and put both their bowls in the sink, the pair went to the living room again to find something to do. Spencer let Henry pick out some toys to play with from the bag JJ had left and the young child was thoroughly entertained for a good while, leaving Reid free to read _Dante's Inferno _again.

Around 11 o'clock, Reid suggested, "Henry, do you want to see if Jack and Uncle Hotch want to have lunch and go to the park today?"

"YEAH!" Henry shouted. "Call, call, call! See Jack!"

The young man reached for his cell phone but right before he began dialing Hotch's number, there was a knock at the door. Spencer got up to open it and saw a man in a uniform standing at his door.

"Can I help you?" Reid asked the man.

"Yes sir," the man replied. "There has been gas leak in this building and I need to go around each apartment to check for gas in the air. If there is gas, then you will have to relocate temporarily for the leak to be fixed."

"Oh," Reid said, hoping there was no gas in the apartment, "come in, then." He opened the door wide enough for the other man to come in and then shut it behind him.

The man unhooked a wand like thing from his box and began walking around the apartment.

Reid went back to where he had been playing with Henry, deciding to wait until after the worker had determined if the apartment was gas free to call Hotch. 'No reason to get to make plans if we just have to cancel if there is a gas leak,' the genius thought.

About 5 minutes later, while Reid was in the kitchen getting juice for Henry, he heard footsteps behind him. He figured that the man from the gas company was just checking the kitchen. He turned around, juice in hand and, as he suspected, it was the uniformed man. The FBI agent noticed that the man did not have his equipment in his hand.

'Must be done,' the 28 year old thought. He opened his mouth to ask if there was any gas leak but he was cut off when the gas company employee (who was not as tall as Reid but had a considerably larger muscle mass) punched the thin man in the stomach.

Spencer Reid doubled over, a grunt of pain escaping his lips. He recovered almost immediately, adrenaline pumping. He needed to get to Henry, protect him.

The man came at him again but this time, Reid's FBI training had kicked in. He dodged the punch his assailant threw at his face and tackled the larger man around the middle. The skinny agent managed to ram the larger man into a wall but the muscular man was not deterred. He rushed right back at Reid who side stepped at the last second causing the other to run head first into the other wall.

Reid took this opportunity to rush from the room. He scooped up Henry who was crying loudly and ran as fast as he could to his bedroom. He slammed the door and locked it. He took Henry to his bathroom and closed the door, telling Henry to turn the lock on the door handle (something he realized even then was a ridiculous thing to expect a nearly two year old to do) and not to come out until he came back. The terrified man then went over to his closet, reaching for the lock box his gun was in. He had locked it away last night in anticipation of Henry's visit with the bullets in his bedside table so there was no way Henry could hurt himself.

The lockbox clicked open and Spencer was just reaching to get the bullets when the door splintered open and the attacker barged in. Spencer saw a second too late that the man was holding a metal statuette from the living room. The man crashed the hard metal figure into Spencer Reid's head.

His last thought as the before everything turned black was how he had failed JJ.


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Spencer Reid noticed was that he had splitting headache. As he opened his eyes to look around, he realized he couldn't see anything.

'Where am I?' Reid thought.

Then he remembered everything.

He jolted upright, sending waves of pain coursing through his head but he didn't care. He had to find Henry, keep his godson safe. He quickly scanned the room he was in. It was dark but he could make out that he was sitting on a bed or cot and that there was a door on one wall.

"Henry?" Reid called quietly. "Henry, can you hear me?"

The young man got no answer. He held his breath to see if he could hear Henry breathing.

He couldn't.

Reid's eyes welled up with frantic tears. He couldn't believe that he had let this happen. He was an FBI agent trained in predicting behavior and hand to hand combat; he should have seen it coming, been able to take his attacker. He should have been able to protect Henry. He didn't even know if Henry, his sweet, loving, playfully little godson was alive or…

That thought sent the tears that he had held at bay falling down his face. The hot tears of anguish coursed down his face, creating wet tracks down his cheeks. The pained man swiped the tears away and managed to stem any more tears from falling.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

He didn't know how long he sat on that bed with his back against the wall, knees pulled up to his chest, arms tight around them. It could have been five minutes or five hours for all he knew. All he knew was that the entire time he was waiting for his captor to come, he was thinking of Henry.

Suddenly, the door creaked open and the light deprived man shut his eyes instinctively. He cracked his eyes open slightly and saw a dark figure standing in the doorway.

The figure didn't say anything. He (by the size and shape of the figure, Reid could tell it is a male) slowly started toward the frightened genius. Reid unconsciously tried to scoot even further away from the approaching man even though he knew that he was already against the wall.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he could make out more of the man's features. It was the man who had attacked him, of that Reid was certain but the man's hair was shorter and he was clean-shaven as opposed to the stubble that had adorned his face earlier.

"SSA Reid," the man sneered, "a pleasure to meet you at last."

Reid gulped. "Where is Henry?" the trembling young man asked.

"Ah, yes," the captor said, "Agent Jareau's son. He is fine, for now. If he stays that way is up to you."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Reid whispered, heart rising to his throat.

"I mean," he smiled slowly, "that if you don't want anything…unpleasant to happen to Henry, you will do whatever I say whenever I say it."

Reid's terror gripped him tighter and tighter until he felt like he could no longer breathe.

"Will you agree to that, Agent Reid?" the other man asked.

"Y-ye-yes," Reid managed to squeak out. "Just don't hurt Henry."

"You are sure that you are willing to do _anything _to keep me from hurting your godson?" he asked softly in a tone that made Reid want to vomit. "Even if it meant that something…unpleasant would happen to you?"

"I never said that Henry was my godson," Reid said, trying to divert his captor's train of thought.

"Oh, I know a lot of things about you," the man chuckled nastily, "some things that you don't even know about yourself. Nice try, Dr. Reid, at distracting me but I still want my answer. Would you be willing to sacrifice yourself for Henry?"

"Yes," Reid said without a second thought.

"Good," the other replied. "This will make it much more fun for me."

"If-if I do what you want," Reid started shakily, "may I keep Henry with me?"

The man thought it over for a few seconds before answering, "I suppose it couldn't hurt. After all," he chuckled, "it's not like he is capable of doing anything other than crying, eating, and pooping."

The man abruptly turned around and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him with a click. A second later there was the sound of a deadbolt being slid into place.

Reid waited stock still, barely breathing for what he thought was about 10 minutes before he heard the deadbolt sliding once again. The door handle turned and Reid saw the captor, holding Henry by the hand. In the other, he had a bag that looked to be full of something.

As their captor led Henry towards his "Unca 'pesser" he said, "Here is some food and diapers and stuff for the kid. If you do what I ask, I'll bring more for him and I'll feed you too."

As soon as the big man let Henry go, he scrambled to his godfather who scooped him up and squeezed the little body to him.

As the man left, he flicked a light switch near the door that bathed the room in a yellowy glow and left his two captives praying to be found.


	3. Chapter 3

After a few minutes of godson and godfather clinging to each other Reid looked Henry over completely, making sure no harm had befallen his young godson. Thankfully, none had.

"Unca 'pesser, whea awe we?" Henry asked timidly.

"I don't know, Henry," Reid said quietly.

"Why he take us?" Henry queried.

"I don't know that either," Reid sighed sadly.

"But Unca Morgy say you know eeeeeeveryting," Henry said, throwing his arms wide in explanation.

"Uncle Morgan was teasing, Henry," Spencer Reid informed his godson. "No one can know everything."

The boy was quiet for a few minutes, contentedly laying in his godfather's embrace before asking in his high baby voice, "He a bad man like you an' mommy an' Unca Morgy an' Unca Hotch an' Auntie Emmy an' Auntie Penny catch at work?"

Reid closed his eyes and rested his cheek on the toddler's soft, fragrant hair.

"Yeah, Henry," he whispered, "he's a bad guy like we catch at work."

Henry turned his head to look at his uncle and grabbed the man's face in his tiny baby hands. In a confident voice, the tiny little boy said, "It be ok, Unca 'pesser. Mommy and da team find us and catch da bad guy. We be ok." And, with his declaration made, little Henry gave his favorite uncle a sloppy kiss and a big hug.

Spencer laughed as he wrapped his long arms around his godson, despite the tears welling in his eyes. How he wished he could believe Henry's innocent, hope-filled words. How he wished that the team would find them and catch whoever was holding them. How he wished that this would all turn out to be some horrible nightmare and that he and Henry were still napping on his couch.

But he knew better.

No one knew they were missing. It was the entire team had been given some time off because of the tragedy that had befallen the entire team with the death of Haley Hotchner. JJ and Will were off in Mexico and he had specifically told her not to call, to just enjoy her time off of work. Hotch was at home with Jack, grieving for the woman he loved and trying to figure out how to go on with his life. Morgan was visiting his mother and sisters, saying privately to Reid that after everything bad that had happened, he really wanted to let his mother and sisters know how much they meant to him. Garcia and Prentiss were having some kind of girl's trip to a spa. No one had a reason to call him.

'And even if they did,' the young genius thought, 'they would probably figure I was just busy with Henry when I didn't answer.'

No one would realize they were missing for a week and by then, every statistic and fact he knew said that he and Henry would almost certainly not last that long.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Again, Dr. Spencer Reid was unsure of how much time had passed. He had changed Henry after they had sat holding each other for a while. After that, he tested out some of the food their kidnapper had left for Henry. After tasting the food and deeming it safe, he fed Henry some animal crackers and soon Henry fell asleep in Reid's lap. All Reid could do was sit stroking Henry's hair, trapped in his own thoughts about what was going to happen to them.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Spencer had begun to lightly doze when the door creaked open again. This time, it was dark beyond the door. The captive deduced that they were being held in some type of shed or storage unit and that it was after five in the evening.

Now that there was a light on, Reid could see the captor's facial features. He had pale skin which could have been genetic or from spending most of his time indoors. He had no distinctive abnormalities, just a small scar on his forehead. He looked vaguely similar to someone but Reid could not quite place who.

"Are you ready to start holding up your end of the agreement, Agent Reid?" the abductor asked the abductee. Spencer swallowed hard and nodded his head slightly.

"Put the boy down," he instructed. Reid did.

"Go to the corner, cover your ears, and don't turn around," the large man told the small boy. Henry looked at his godfather who nodded, trying to keep the terror from his face.

Once Henry was in the corner with his hands over his ears, the man pulled out a knife. Spencer Reid felt his blood drain from his face and go cold. His heart clenched up and his breath hitched in his throat. He wished that he could fight his way out of this but he wasn't strong enough, as was already proven by the first attack, and he could never risk Henry like that.

The man approached Spencer who instinctively backed away and curled into himself even more. When the approaching man told the young captive to lay flat on his back with his arms and legs straight, it was nearly impossible for Reid to be able to unclench his muscles and lay flat.

"Relax, Agent Reid," he gave a smile that sent shivers down Reid's spine. "I'm not going to hurt you too badly. I need you to stay alive. If I killed you now, what fun would there be in that?"

Reid gulped nervously, waiting for whatever torture this sick and twisted individual had in store for the terrified captive.

The captor slowly unbuttoned Reid's shirt. Once all the buttons were undone and the shirt was out of the way, the man brought the knife to Spencer's throat. Spencer's eyes bugged out slightly and his breathing quickened. The knife-wielding man chuckled and pressed the knife hard into the soft flesh of the FBI agent's throat. He felt a sharp sting and a small trickle of blood run down the side of his neck. He bit his lip to keep from gasping.

The bigger man trailed the tip of the knife down Reid's chest and stomach, making red scratches that oozed tiny droplets of blood. Reid's breath was still coming in short inhalations and he couldn't bite back a small cry when his tormentor pressed the blade in harder, causing intense pain to course through his chest and abdomen. He could feel the warm blood running down his sides. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to forget the look of pleasure on the evil man carving into his torso.

It didn't work.

The man shifted his body and Reid felt something against his leg that made him want to vomit. He prayed to God, a god that he didn't even know if he believed in, begging that He wouldn't allow the man not to do that too him, especially not with pure, innocent Henry, who knew nothing of the evil that lurked behind corners and in the shadows of their world, in the room.

A moment later, Reid's attacker lifted the knife and let the room, locking the door behind him only to come back a few minutes later with some large pads of gauze, antiseptic ointment, and tape, telling the bloody young man to clean himself up because it wouldn't be fun if Reid got an infection and got too ill to play his games. He tossed that bag into the room and another after it before closing and locking the door with a click.

Spencer stared unblinkingly at the door for quite a few minutes to make sure the nameless kidnapper wasn't coming back before getting up to retrieve the bags. He instructed Henry to stay in the corner for just a few more minutes. He didn't want Henry to see him all bloody and weak. He needed to be strong for Henry if they were going to survive.

Using one of the pieces of gauze to wipe himself somewhat clean of the blood, he quickly taped the other pieces in place to cover his wounds.

He told Henry that he could come out of the corner and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, a small blur rushed at him and grabbed him around the legs, sobbing something about the bad man hurting his 'Unca 'pesser.'

Once Henry had calmed slightly, Reid set him on the cot and went to get the mysterious other bag the captor had thrown into the room.

Reid discovered it had some bottled water, granola and energy bars, and a few pieces of fruit. Accompanying the food and drink was a note that said if he behaved as well tomorrow, he would get better food than what was currently available to him.

Spencer was not hungry; in fact, he still felt like vomiting whenever he remembered what of the man he had felt pressed up against him, but he knew he had to eat and keep his strength up if he wanted to give Henry the best chance at survival. He managed to choke down a granola bar, an apple, and half of a bottle of water while Henry polished off a jar of applesauce, some graham crackers, a banana, and a juice box.

After eating, he settled Henry on the floor to play with the toys from the bag in an attempt to distract the child from the dire situation they were in. He knew nothing would be able to distract his mind from going over every statistic related to kidnappings, torture, and sexual sadism that he had ever come into contact with.

Eventually, Henry became drowsy, making Reid believe it was somewhere around eight or nine at night. Reid changed the toddler's diaper and settled him on the cot under a blanket that Reid had not noticed he had been sitting on.

Reid sat up next to the cot, stroking Henry's hair occasionally, willing his mind to stop for once in his life when he realized that he had to go to the bathroom. Badly. He looked around the room but saw nothing he could use as a toilet. He leaned forward to push himself up from the ground and luckily saw a bucket sitting under the cot. At least it was something.

After relieving himself, Reid decided that even though he doubted he would sleep, he should at least try. The abused man gingerly lay down next to his godson, holding him tight and again, praying to that same God he didn't really believe in to protect him and Henry from the sadistic man who held them captive.


	4. Chapter 4

Spencer Reid didn't get much sleep that night. Every time Henry moved or sighed in his sleep, Spencer's eyes would snap open, frantically looking around to see if the kidnapper was back.

When Henry awoke, Spencer figured it was maybe eight a.m. He changed the toddler and fed him some apple sauce and graham crackers along with a juice box. Spencer himself still felt like vomiting when the memories of what the man had done to him yesterday but he did manage the other half of the water bottle and an energy bar.

After eating, Henry convinced his godfather to play with him. All the boy had to do was look up at the older man with hopeful eyes and Spencer gave in. They played whatever Henry wanted until the boy got hungry again.

After feeding Henry and forcing another energy bar down his throat, Reid lay down with Henry so the child could take a nap. The boy fell into an undisturbed sleep while his godfather lay, staring up at the gray ceiling, trying yet again to make the facts and statistics of how likely it was that he and Henry would never again see outside this room rest.

Before Henry could finish his nap, his and Reid's tormentor returned. He set another bag on the floor by the door before slowly approaching the cot where both captives sat. Reid scrambled to get in front of his godson so that he could shield the innocent child from the evil facing them.

"Relax, Agent Reid," the man smiled, making Spencer want to retch. "I already told you that I would leave your precious godson alone so long as I could do what I wanted to you."

Spencer gulped but set his jaw, refusing to let this man see the fear he instilled in the genius.

"Are you still up for our little agreement?" the nameless assailant asked.

Reid couldn't find his voice at that moment so he gave a curt nod instead.

"Good," was the reply. "I imagine it would be much less satisfying to hurt the boy. He hasn't done anything to me, unlike you."

"Wh-" Spencer cleared his throat, trying to get the knot of fear to disapate, "what have I ever done to you? I've never met you before."

"It wasn't something you did to me," the man answered, anger slipping through his previously lackadaisical tone. "It was someone I was close to. But enough about that, let's get on with our fun."

"Henry," Reid told his godson in a tight voice, "please go sit in the corner like yesterday, ok?"

"But Unca 'pesser!" Henry protested.

Reid didn't let him continue. "Do what I say Henry," the godfather said in a tone that brooked no argument. Henry petulantly obeyed his godfather, little arms crossed over his chest as he toddled over to the corner.

"Hands over your ears, kid" the assailant reminded the boy.

Once Henry had done that, the attacker told Spencer to stand up. Reid obliged, pushing himself off the bed. The man said nothing further, just stood, looking at Reid, eyes roaming up and down Reid's body.

Bile bubbled up into Reid's throat as he saw the telltale signs of what the man was obviously feeling. Dilated pupils, quickened breaths, a light flush to the man's cheeks, and a not so subtle tightening of the man's jeans all told Reid that what he felt last night was no a freak occurrence as he had irrationally hoped.

He again said a silent prayer to that God he didn't really believe in, imploring the supposedly almighty being to not let this happen to him.

The man stepped closer and Reid squeezed his eyes shut, still wordlessly begging not to be violated.

He stood there, barely breathing, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did for several moments, he opened his eyes to see what the assailant was doing. He was just in time to see a fist fly into his face.

Pain blossomed in his nose and cheeks. Blood poured from a broken nose. His head smashed against a wall, sending another wave of pain coursing through the thin body and spots to appear in his vision.

Spencer slid to the floor and slumped gracelessly onto his side, moaning. He could hear a small whimper come from the corner where Henry was. It made his heart hurt to think that the little boy had to endure all this horror at such a young age. The only solace he could take from that was that, in a few months, Henry probably would have no memory of these events.

'He won't have any memory of these events if he dies either,' came a whisper in Spencer's mind. 'You know the chances of getting out of this alive.'

Spencer squeezed his eyes shut again, willing the voice to stop reminding him of how he had failed to protect JJ's son.

"Now, that won't do," the abductor said in a cheerful tone of voice. "How can I have fun if I can't see the pain in your eyes? Open them or I'll cut off one of Henry's fingers.

Spencer's eyes shot open wide.

"That's better," the sadistic man smiled.

Reid saw him pull out a roll of duct tape and tear off a strip about eight inches in length. Reid eyed it warily, knowing what it was going to be used for. Sure enough, the man pressed the tape over the injured man's mouth, purposefully knocking into Reid's nose, causing him to cry out against the tape in pain and unwelcome tears flood his eyes.

"If you think the hurts," the twisted man hissed into his captive's ear, "just wait until you feel what's next."

Reid's eyes opened wider, begging with his eyes for the man to stop but it was for naught. The man grabbed Reid by the arm and dragged him to the middle of the floor where the injured man lay flat on his back. The bigger man straddled him, letting Reid feel yet again the unwelcome sensation of something very firm inside the man's pants.

From his back pocket, the abuser grabbed something. Reid's vision was still a little blurry from the blow to his head but he could tell what they were.

Pliers.

"Ah, ah, ah," the man on top of Spenser said as the dominated men began to struggle, trying to dislodge the unsurprisingly heavy man from his hips. "If you don't stop that right now, Henry might have to lose a fingernail instead." Immediately Reid stopped struggling, glancing over towards Henry to make sure the child was still turned towards the wall.

The man grabbed one of the agent's hands. He caressed them, running his fingertips along the length of the willowy subordinate's fingers. He brought the other's hand to his mouth and kissed the tip of the pinky finger. Reid shuddered violently, feeling the bile rise in his throat yet again.

Swiftly, the man brought the pliers to the finger and slowly peeled the nail off the appendage. Reid screamed into the tape and his eyes bulged but the man just laughed and continued removing the nail from the helpless man underneath him.

Once the nail was completely separated from the beaten man, the other stood up and ripped the duct tape of the face of the hurt young man on the floor leaving a raw, red stripe on his face. The kidnapper left the room saying something about more food in the bag and that he would be back later to empty the bucket. The door shut with a click and Reid could hear the lock slide into place.


	5. Chapter 5

Spencer lay on the ground breathing heavily, trying to ease the pain radiating from his face, head, and finger.

Once the pain dissipated slightly, he pushed himself up off the floor. Pain erupted in his head once more and his vision swam slightly. He swayed but managed to keep from falling over.

Once his vision cleared, he shakily made his way to the first bag of medical supplies. He grabbed it and a water bottle from the bag sitting next to it. He tossed it onto the cot and slowly made his way to the new bag by the door. He took that to the bed as well and began cleaning himself up.

"Stay there, Henry," Spencer called to godson quietly. "You can come out in a few minutes." Henry's little head nodded slightly.

After using a piece of the gauze soaked in a bit of water to clean the blood off his face, Reid hesitantly prepared to set his nose. He knew that if it healed wrong, it could cause problems breathing, even in the short term which is all he expected to live.

He stuffed a wad of the blanket on the cot into his mouth and positioned his hands gingerly on his nose. It was swollen and throbbed to the touch but he didn't need to be a genius with an IQ of 187 to know that it was nothing compared to what he was about to feel.

He quickly applied pressure and pushed his nose back into the correct placement. Try as he might, he could not keep a scream of pain from tearing from his throat. The blanket muffled it some but not enough to keep it from terrifying Henry.

The child jump like someone had shocked him. He snapped his head around and he saw his uncle with tears in his eyes and bruises on his face. The little boy couldn't help but start wailing.

Reid quickly covered his aching nose in several layers of gauze before taping it down and doing the same to his nail-less phalange.

"Oh, Henry, its ok," Spencer said softly as he crouched down in front of his godson. "Don't be afraid."

Henry launched his sobbing form into the arms of his godfather and clung tightly. Spencer in return, carried the slight child to their cot and held him for a very long time, stroking his hair and back, occasionally pressing kisses into the child's now dirty hair, whispering what he hoped were comforting words in an effort to calm the quaking boy.

Henry fell asleep eventually but Reid couldn't bring himself to lay the boy on the cot. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on reciting Voltaire's _Candide in _its original French for memory rather than think if all the horrifying kidnapping cases he had worked on.

Sometime later, after Spencer had dozed off himself, Henry woke up and was hungry. The duo ate, although the older nearly threw up, and played until Henry was hungry again, only stopping when Reid smelled something slightly foul coming from his godson's direction.

Their captor came back that night and emptied the bucket, like he said. He also brought along another package of diapers, saying he didn't want the kid's crap on his floor. Reid wanted to ask why he cared about having excrement on the floor when it already had plenty of blood stains marring it already but Spencer Reid, genius that he was, knew that antagonizing this obviously deranged man was the stupidest thing he could do if he wanted him and Henry to survive this ordeal long enough for the team to find him.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Henry and Reid were left alone until the following night. They spent their precious relatively fear free time playing games, drawing pictures, or Reid telling Henry stories.

Around the time Henry's eyes started to droop and his head loll, the terrorizer returned.

"Go to the corner, Henry," Reid instructed the almost two year old with superficial calm. "Cover your ears and shut your eyes. I'll come over to you when you can come out." When Henry looked at his godfather nervously, Spencer made a weak attempt at a reassuring smile but could tell he didn't succeed when the toddler's face only got more terrified as he turned and scuttled to the farthest corner of the room.

Reid could already tell the man was getting excited at the mere thought of torturing the slighter man in front of him. The same signs were there as the day before. The young man could actually feel the bile start to crawl up his throat and swallowed hard to keep from regurgitating what little he had managed to force himself to eat these past few days.

The FBI agent saw his tormentor pull out a knife and begin to finger it lovingly.

"Did you know, Dr. Reid," he said conversationally, "that your hands and fingertips are some of the most sensitive areas on the human body? Or that the bottoms of feet are as well?"

Reid nodded, already knowing what the man was going to do.

"Where do you suppose I start, your pianist-like hands or your long feet?" the sadist asked, like a normal person would ask what he should have for lunch.

Reid's mouth opened but no words came out.

"I'm waiting," the man said in a slightly impatient tone. "If you won't decide, I'll just ask Henry which one hurts less."

"My-my hands," Reid stammered quickly. "Start with my hands."

The knife-wielding man said nothing but pulled the knife out of its sheath. Reid recognized it as a hunting knife used to skin animals. That thought made his stomach roll and churn uncomfortably.

With his free hand, the more muscular man pushed Reid down on to the cot. He twirled the knife around in his hand, watching the light glint off the blade.

Seeming to be done with admiring the knife, the assaulter roughly grabbed Reid's hands. As with the previous day, the sick, twisted man kissed each hand before he got down to business.

The man traced down each of the young prodigy's fingers slowly, leaving thin red stinging lines on every single one, even the gauze covered one where the . Reid was silently wishing that the man would stop there but he knew it would never end with something so painless. The interest was in seeing pain and compared to the other things the man had already done to Spencer, this was like getting a relaxing shoulder massage.

The psychopathic man returned the knife to the tip of the first finger. As he stared straight into Reid's wide brown eyes, he pressed hard. The knife cut easily through the sensitive flesh. Crimson blood seeped from the laceration and ran down the long fingers. The man smiled sickeningly and trailed the knife down the finger, pressing a little less than on the tip.

He repeated it on each finger and Reid's eyes filled with tears after the second, despite his best efforts. He might have lasted longer if he hadn't had his face at about the same level as the man's groin. He could see the gradual change in the tension on the denim of his pants.

The man relished in the excitement he got from damaging the other's fingers for a moment. Reid wished he couldn't tell how much pleasure the sadist was getting out of this.

Abruptly, the torturer pushed Reid flat onto the cot.

'NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!' Spencer Reid's mind screamed. 'Don't let him be doing this. NO!'

Surprisingly to Reid, the man didn't do what the agent was expecting. Instead, he grabbed one of Reid's feet and gave them essentially the same treatment as Reid's hands.

Tears were streaming down his face, not unlike the blood running down his hands and feet as Reid's torturer left the room.


	6. Chapter 6

Spencer was thankful that he had left the bags of gauze and antibiotic ointment within reach of the cot because he knew there was no way he would be able to stand right now.

While searching for the tube of ointment, Spencer found a couple bottles of liquid bandage compound. While he knew it would sting like crazy, it was the best way to keep from his cuts getting infected so he slowly and painfully sealed each wound, including the ones on his chest and abdomen and covered every knife cut with ointment and gauze before letting Henry come out of the corner.

The little boy was obviously exhausted but he was so terrified at the sight of the fresh blood and how sick his uncle looked that the boy did nothing but cling to Unca 'pesser and cry for an hour (at least it felt like an hour to Reid) before passing out.

Spencer knew sleep would not claim him in its embrace for quite some time that night. He tried reciting books and poems he knew but his mind would not cooperate. It kept veering off on to other topics.

He thought about the team.

JJ. She had always been like the sister he didn't have, being warm and kind but also teasing him. He could always tell that she loved him and considered him family, just like he hoped she knew he did as well.

Morgan. The only best friend he had ever had. Sure, the older agent always teased him and called him embarrassing nicknames like kid and Pretty Boy, but Spencer knew that whenever he really needed something, Derek Morgan would always be there for him, no matter the reason. He knew he was just a skinny kid who needed protecting but Reid hoped that he had showed Morgan that he would be there when the older agent needed it.

Garcia. She could always make him laugh, no matter what kind of mood she was in. She was almost like a crazy cousin that everyone thought was weird but loved anyways. But she was also sweet and compassionate and let everyone she worked with know how much they meant to her with her pet names and loving personality. Hopefully, Garcia knew that Reid cared about her as well.

Hotch. Reid thought of the supervisor as something of father figure. After his father and Gideon had left him (and even before Gideon, really), Hotch had always looked out for the youngest agent on his team. Reid trusted and respected Hotch and despite Hotch's somewhat austere personality, he knew Hotch cared about him. Reid hoped Hotch knew that he cared about him, too.

Prentiss. He wasn't as close to her as he was to JJ or Morgan but she was still a good friend. She wasn't afraid to tell him when he was being a jerk and kick his butt when it needed kicking.

Rossi. He didn't know Rossi as well as the rest of his team but Rossi acted a bit like an uncle, watching out for the young man. Reid knew that he had no reason to doubt that the man would have his back if the need ever arose.

Then his mind drifted to his childhood. How he had always enjoyed lying out on the grass at night, staring up at the stars. Sometimes his father would join him. His father was the one who taught him to recognize constellations.

He remembered visiting his father's parents a few times when he was very young, before they had died. His grandmother always made him cookies and his grandfather would tell him stories about being in the Navy and answered every question Spencer had about the ships.

He recalled how every Sunday morning William Reid would make pancakes with chocolate chips in them just for Spencer and let his son drink chocolate milk. Spencer's mother rarely joined them. She liked to sleep late.

'He was a good father, before he left,' Spencer thought. 'Maybe not the best but he always tried to make me happy.'

But then Spencer Reid remembered the second half of his childhood, the part after William Reid abandoned him. How hurt he was when his dad left him and his mom. How confused he was when his dad never called him or came to see him. How scared he had always been, not knowing who he was coming home to: his mother who gave him hugs and cooked dinner or his mother who lay in bed all day with all the curtains closed because she thought someone was watching her.

The anger and hate start to bubble up from deep within him but he consciously tried to push it down. He didn't want to spend what would probably be his last few days alive angry at his father. He was tired of hating the man. Yes, William Reid had done a horrible thing to his wife and son but the only thing Spencer Reid's hatred of the older man was accomplishing was hurting himself.

'If I get out of this,' Reid said internally, 'I'm going to try talking to him.'

As he felt his eyes get heavier, his thoughts drifted to his mother. He could vaguely remember before the schizophrenia set in. She used to play with him all day, doing whatever he wanted: going to the park and sliding down the slides with him, making cupcakes with mountains of icing, going to the library to read book after book.

She had been the best mother in the world, in his opinion. But then she got sick. She didn't play with him as much. They almost never went to the park or the library. When they did, she didn't slide down the slides with him anymore, just sat on a bench, looking around. She would say things about people watching them and wanting to hurt them when he would ask to go out. If his father heard her, he made Spencer go in his room. Then the shouting would begin.

After his father left, there was no one to protect him from his mother's delusions.

His eyes stung and tears crept to the corners of his eyes as he thought of her now, alone, in a mental institution, never having any visitors (at least that Spencer knew of). He wrote her every day, sure but he still could never get over the guilt of leaving her there. He should have been able to take care of her himself.

But he couldn't. It was too painful and scary to see what he might become.

As his eyes drifted shut, sleep finally taking him, he thought, 'If Henry and I get out of this alive, I'm going to visit Mom every chance I get. Nothing can hurt more or be scarier than this.'


	7. Chapter 7

The two captives had a relatively relaxing morning. At least, as relaxin as a day could be when you are being held against you will and being tortured once a day.

Henry didn't want to play that morning. After they ate, he climbed into his godfather's lap and asked for a story. Spencer obliged. After he had finished reciting Hans Christian Andersen's _The Ugly Duckling, _Henry asked for another. He asked again and again. Eventually, after Spencer had told 6 stories, Henry stopped asking for more stories. Spencer thought he had fallen asleep at first but the child's breathing wasn't slow or even enough for him to be asleep.

Spencer was content to hold Henry as long as the child wanted. He was tired of having to put on a happy face and act like nothing was wrong.

Eventually, Henry did fall asleep, calmed by his uncle's soothing hand running over his head.

He didn't sleep for very long and seemed just as clingy when he woke. He stayed in Spencer's lap while he ate and settled back into his previous position, his little head at his uncle's heart.

Normally, Henry only acted in that fashion when he was getting ill but his skin wasn't flushed and when the older man felt his head, it didn't feel warm.

He knew it wouldn't. Henry was young but he was old enough to understand what was happening.

"Unca 'pesser?" Henry whispered. Spencer felt sick with guilt when he heard the sadness and resignation in the toddler's voice.

"Yes, Henry," he replied softly.

"We never see Momma or Daddy or Unca Hotch or Unca Morgy or Auntie Penny or Auntie Emmie or Jack again, awe we?"

Spencer didn't respond right away. His heart was breaking. How was he supposed to answer a question like that? He didn't want to lie to his godson but he couldn't tell him the truth; that it was almost a statistical impossibility that they would ever get out of the room alive.

The FBI agent pressed a kiss to the child's dirty hair and hugged him tightly.

"If anyone can find us, it's the team, Henry," Reid whispered into his godson's hair. Henry wrapped his arms around his uncle's middle and was silent again.

The two stayed in each other's embrace until their captor returned.

"Go on, Henry," Reid whispered to the child as the captor entered the room and dropped a large bag by the door. "Stay there, no matter what, until I tell you it's ok."

Henry obeyed his uncle without question.

The man didn't say anything today. He just grabbed Reid's upper arm and shoved him to the ground. Spencer sprawled out on his back but thankfully managed not to hit his head.

The man placed his foot on Spencer's chest and forced the thin man to lay flat on his back. The large man pressed down on the smaller man's chest.

Spencer couldn't breathe. It was one of the most terrifying sensations he had ever felt. He longed to throw the foot off of him but he knew he didn't have the strength and even if he had, he wouldn't. He had to protect Henry.

Black spots were appearing in front of the genius's brown eyes. Just before he was about to pass out, he heard three cracks in rapid succession and the pressure was lifted from his chest. Pain blossomed in the victim's chest but at least he could breathe. He would rather have pain with every breath than ever feel the terror and helplessness of not being able to expand his lungs.

As Spencer was trying to breathe normally, the attacker straddled his captive.

"Did that hurt, Agent Reid?" the dominant man asked in a hushed voice.

Spencer nodded his head very slightly.

"Nuh uh, uh," the assailant murmured teasingly. "I want to hear you say it out loud. If you don't…" He let the sentence hang.

"Yes," Spencer wheezed. "Yes, it really hurts."

"Good," the man breathed.

The man shifted slightly, not getting off the other man. Reid could feel the same thing as before. He wasn't surprised. When the man had entered, Spencer had seen the signs of his arousal, just like the previous days.

The man still didn't get off and it was making Spencer intensely nervous. The man kept shifting his weight and Reid wished he didn't know what the man was doing.

Suddenly the man stopped and sat still, closing his eyes. Reid clenched his jaw and swallowed rapidly to stave off the reappearance of the apple and granola bar he had eaten earlier that day.

The attacker got up from on top of the other man and left the room but not before giving Reid a swift kick in the side which caused a grunt of pain from the already injured man.

Once Reid was able to get up, he made his way to the cot. He called to Henry that he could come out. The child rushed to his godfather and sobbed into his lap. Reid rubbed the child's back, trying to soothe him with quiet words of reassurance that they were ok.

Henry eventually climbed up onto the cot and laid down, head in his godfather's lap. He fell asleep like that, before he had even eaten anything but Spencer didn't have the heart to wake the child. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, something that he hadn't seen in the child in much too long.

Sleep didn't come to Spencer Reid for quite some time. He filled the minutes (or hours, he couldn't really tell) by alternating between reciting some of his favorite poems in his head and figuring out complex mathematical equations.

When Spencer Reid's eyes finally slid closed, he was overcome with a feeling of impending doom.


	8. Chapter 8

Aaron Hotchner was awoken by something, or rather someone, jumping on his bed and giggling. He opened his eyes to see, of course, Jack in his Batman pajamas hopping up and down excitedly and couldn't keep a small smile from his face.

"Come on, Daddy!" Jack said. "I'm hungry!"

"Oh, yeah?" the agent asked his son. "Well, what are you hungry for?"

"Waffles" the young boy shouted.

"Ok, Jack," his father replied. "Waffles it is."

While the elder Hotchner mixed the batter and cooked the waffles, Jack watched cartoons. Aaron was happy to hear the shrieks of laugher coming from the other room. It was nice to see Jack beginning to be happy again. After Haley, Jack had understandably been withdrawn and quiet, rather than his usual rambunctious, happy self and Aaron was glad to see that Jack was starting to be happy again.

"Daddy?" Jack asked with a mouth full of syrupy waffles.

"Chew and swallow first, buddy," the father instructed.

"Daddy," the little boy said when he had swallowed, "can we see Henry today? I haven't seen him in foreeeeeeeeeeeever."

"I can call Uncle Spencer later and see," the father responded. "He is watching Henry while Aunt JJ and Uncle Will are on vacation."

The pair finished their waffles and Jack went back to watching cartoons while the other went to take a shower and get dressed.

After leaving the steamy bathroom and pulling on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt, Hotch called Reid's cell phone. It rang and rang and finally went to voicemail. Hotch flipped the phone shut and figured he would call back in a few hours. After all, it was only 9 am, Reid might still be asleep.

Two hours later, he tried again. Reid still didn't answer his phone.

'I know Reid isn't a morning person but he can't still be asleep,' the worried agent thought. 'Something is wrong.'

He called his neighbors next and asked if they could watch Jack for a little while. They agreed so as soon as Jack was there, Hotch took off for Reid's apartment.

When he got to the younger agent's door, nothing seemed out of place. He knocked loudly but no one came. He knocked again; still nothing.

SSA Hotchner went back to the lobby of the building where he had seen the super's office. The man was a little reluctant at first but as soon as he mentioned that he worked for the FBI with Spencer, the man took a key off the hook and said to return it when he was done.

Aaron apprehensively opened the door and immediately knew he was right. Something was very wrong here. He immediately drew his gun.

There were toys on the floor of the living room, scattered about like someone had just been playing with them. As he looked into the kitchen, he saw a chair that was overturned and dents in two walls.

Hotch left the kitchen and down the hall. The bedroom door had been kicked in and he saw Spencer's gun on the floor, lock box on the bed. The bedside table was open and he saw Reid's bullets in the drawer and Reid's cell phone on top of the table.

He whipped out his cell phone and speed dialed Morgan at once.

"Please don't tell me we have a case, man," Morgan answered the call.

"We do," Hotch said solemnly. Morgan started to say something but Hotch cut him off.

"I'm at Reid's right now. He and Henry aren't here and there are signs of a struggle," Hotch informed the other agent.

"I'll be there in a few hours," Morgan said before the line went dead.

He then called Prentiss. He figured she would be more leveled headed at the moment than Penelope and he didn't have the patience to deal with her getting upset right now.

"What's up, Hotch?" she asked. "You interrupted the most amazing massage I have ever had."

"Reid and Henry are missing," he said, not beating around the bush. "I'm in his apartment and there are signs of a struggle."

"Oh, my god," she breathed. "I'll tell Garcia and we'll be there ASAP."

As soon as the call ended, he took a deep breath and called JJ.

"Hey, Hotch," JJ answered cheerfully. "We don't have a case do we?"

"JJ," he said hesitantly.

"Oh, my god, what's wrong?" she gasped.

"JJ, I'm at Reid's right now," he took another deep breath and pushed forward. "He and Henry aren't here. There are signs of a struggle and Reid's cell phone is still here."

"Oh-oh god!" she cried. "We'll be on the next flight out of- Oh, god, Hotch!"

"We'll find them, JJ" the agent said, hoping he wasn't lying.


	9. Chapter 9

Henry and Reid's morning passed uneventfully. They slept (Henry did, at least; Reid dozed at most), ate, and played a little but Henry still seemed disinterested. Mostly, he just wanted Unca 'pesser to tell him stories or to hold him.

Sometime after the captive pair ate lunch, their attacker returned. Instead of telling Henry to go in the corner, he instructed his young victim to come to him.

Henry looked at his godfather, questioningly. His godfather, in return, moved in front of the child.

"What are you going to do to Henry?" Reid asked, trying very hard to keep his voice from shaking. "You told me that if I let you do what you wanted that you would leave Henry alone."

"Calm down, Agent Reid," he answered smoothly. "I'm not going to hurt him. I just figured that you wouldn't want Henry to witness what I am about to do." Spencer gulped, a sickening feeling starting in the pit of his stomach and moving up his throat.

"Wha-what are you going to do?" he asked in a whisper that he couldn't keep a tremor out of no matter how hard he tried.

His tormentor smiled nastily. "I think you know, Agent Reid."

Spencer felt his face go white and the bile that he had fought hard all these days finally win. He ran to the bucket in the corner and emptied the energy bar and apple he had eaten earlier that afternoon into the bucket.

"Henry can come back after I am through with you," he said with a satisfied smirk. "But he might not come back in the same condition if you don't let me do what I want."

Spencer allowed Henry to be led from the room before vomiting into the bucket once again.

The man returned quickly. He grabbed Spencer and forced him down to the cot. He roughly began undoing the buttons on Spencer's shirt. The abused man squeezed his eyes shut tight but that didn't stop the fear and disgust from overwhelming him.

When the stronger man began undoing his pants, Spencer couldn't stop himself from fighting back. In the back of his mind, he knew that it was his natural fight-or-flight instinct kicking in but all he could really think about was getting the man off of him.

He kicked out and twisted and turned, trying to dislodge the heavier man from on top of him. The man swore and clutched his stomach, backing off of the FBI agent for a moment.

Once he had caught his breath, he grabbed Spencer (who was cowering against the wall by the cot) and threw him to the ground.

"Are you sure that's really what you want to do?" the furious man hissed. "I'll give you one more chance to do what I want you to before something happens to Henry."

"Please don't do anything to Henry," Reid whispered. "I'm sorry; I'll let you do anything."

"Good," the man replied. "But you know that I can't let that go unpunished." And with that, the larger man slammed his foot on the man on the floor's skinny arm. Spencer screamed out in agony as he felt the bones in his snap.

He was still sobbing when the other man began to finish what he had started.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Spencer managed to stem his tears by the time Henry was returned. The man also threw an elastic bandage to wrap his arm up.

He fed Henry but he knew he wouldn't be able to keep anything down.

Henry could tell something was wrong with his uncle and Reid knew it. Try as he might, he couldn't stop the tears that occasionally leaked from his eyes. Henry climbed into his uncle's lap and gave him a sloppy kiss on the nose.

"It be ok, Unca 'pesser," Henry whispered as he curled up in his uncle's lap. "I lub you."

"I love you, too, Henry," Reid whispered back, a lump clogging his throat.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

After calling JJ, he realized he hadn't called Rossi. He did but Morgan had apparently already called. Rossi was already on his way to the airport from where ever he was on his book tour.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

While Hotch was waiting for the team to get there, he called the Bureau's crime scene team to come process Reid's apartment. They looked through every little thing in the apartment for 3 hours but they weren't able to find any fingerprints or hair or anything to find the UnSub. They found some blood and skin on a statue laying on Reid's bed but Hotch was willing to bet it was how the UnSub had finally subdued Reid.

After they left, Hotch did a walkthrough of the house, trying to get into the head of whoever had taken the two.

There was no sign of forced entry, so it must have either been someone Spencer knew or someone he wouldn't think twice about letting in, like someone who worked for the utility companies.

Hotch moved to the kitchen. There was a sippy cup on the floor in the middle of something sticky. Probably juice. This was obviously where the UnSub first assaulted Reid. He couldn't tell who shoved who into the walls but Reid had gotten away because he had gotten to his bedroom.

That is where the agent went to next. This was where Reid had been taken down. He must have disabled the UnSub temporarily (probably at least one of the dents in the kitchen) to have enough time to get himself and Henry (there was no way that Reid woudn't have taken Henry into the bedroom with him) into the bedroom, lock the door, and get his gun before the UnSub kicked in the door and knocked him out.

'How had he kept Henry quiet?' SSA Hotchner thought. Then he thought of his son and what it would take to make him stay absolutely silent. Fear. The man (Reid might be skinny but he highly doubted a woman could have taken down Reid) must have done something to terrify the young boy into silence.

With his walkthrough done, Hotch decided to go ask the super if there had been any utility workers there on or since Saturday.

The super said that he hadn't made any appointments for any repairs or anything else involving utility workers for the past three weeks and that all repairs his renters scheduled had to make notification to him and he hadn't had one of those in over 2 months.

"Damn it," the man muttered. "I wish I had shelled out for those security cameras now. Spencer Reid was my best renter. Never had one complaint about him, everybody liked him; he was a super's dream."

The team would be arriving soon. Morgan's flight landed in an hour and Rossi, Prentiss, and Garcia's flight would be landing about half an hour after that. JJ and Will wouldn't be in until late that night. Once the majority of the team arrived, they would question the neighbors and do everything they could to find their friend and his godson.


	10. Chapter 10

Thankfully, neither flight was delayed. Morgan's flight from Chicago arrived first. He looked pale and his jaw was clenched, a sure sign of how worried he was about Reid and Henry. Rossi, Prentiss, and Garcia showed up 35 minutes later. Rossi didn't show any outward signs of the stress and worry he was feeling but Hotch knew him well enough to know he wouldn't rest until they had Reid and Henry back. Garcia was still teary eyed and Prentiss's eyes were red rimmed as well.

They didn't talk until they were in the Bureau SUV.

"There was no forced entry so the kidnapper is either someone Reid knew or some kind of utility worker, someone he would let in automatically," Hotch informed the team.

"Could have been a push in," Morgan suggested. "Someone knocks, Reid opens the door, guy pulls a gun and pushes his way in."

"No, I don't think so," Hotch disagreed. "There are signs of a struggle in Reid's kitchen and he managed to get to his room and try to load his gun. He wouldn't have fought someone with a gun, especially with Henry in the house."

"Ok, so, someone he knew or someone he automatically trusted," Rossi said. "Any scheduled workmen?"

"No," Hotch replied. "If it was a worker, it was either an imposter or one making an unscheduled stop. I'm leaning toward a worker rather than an acquaintance. There was a statue on the bed that had a small amount of blood and skin on it. Probably used it to knock Reid out. He would have needed a way to get Reid and Henry to his vehicle, which would probably need to be a van or truck, also pointing to a utility worker."

"But how did he keep Henry quiet?" Prentiss asked.

"No evidence to say for sure," Hotch answered. "I think he probably scared Henry into silence. Said that he would kill JJ and Will, Reid, or even that he would kill Henry."

"Oh, my poor babies!" Garcia whispered, a fresh way of tears breaking free. Morgan put an arm around her and she turned to cry into his shoulder.

"So, what's the plan?" Rossi asked.

"Well, I don't think that this was a random attack," Hotch said. "If it was just a random thing, there are a lot easier ways to get someone. This is personal. I think that Prentiss and Rossi, you guys should look into old files. See if there is any reason for someone to have a beef with Reid specifically, then for us in general. Any threats from family members or friends of UnSubs. Garcia, you check his work email. See if there are any strange emails, maybe that he marked as spam or deleted. And see if there is anyone complaining about him or anything similar online or in chat rooms.

"Morgan, you and I are going to talk to Reid's neighbors and see if they saw anyone or heard anything. After we do that, we'll regroup and see what we've got."

The rest of the drive was only punctuated by the occasional sob from Penelope and Morgan quietly trying to console her.

They were soon at the office and rushing off again as soon as Garcia closed the last door.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Hotch and Morgan split up. Hotch took the bottom two floors and Morgan took the top two. They agreed to meet on Reid's floor and finish up together.

At first it seemed that no one knew anything. None of them had seen any work men around the building. One man said he heard thumps coming from the apartment below him (Reid's) but he had figured Reid was either moving furniture or had a "friend" over.

They found what they wanted at the last apartment they stopped at,

"Oh, are you friends of Spencer's?" the little old woman asked brightly.

"Yes, ma'am, we are," Morgan replied politely. "I'm Agent Morgan and this is Agent Hotchner."

"Spencer is such a sweet boy," she smiled. "He always carries my groceries for me and he's even driven me to the doctor's office a few times. I don't drive, you see. I bring him nice home cooked dinners when he's home. He's much to skinny."

Then she frowned.

"Something's wrong, isn't it?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, it is, ma'am," Hotch answered her. "Spencer and his godson, Henry, were kidnapped sometime between Saturday morning at 7 a.m. and this morning." The woman gasped as her hand flew to her mouth. "We were wondering if you saw anything. Someone going into Re- uh Spencer's apartment, maybe a utility worker?"

"Oh, my goodness!" she exclaimed. "I did see someone going into Spencer's apartment on Saturday. He was wearing some kind of greenish-grey jumpsuit and a baseball cap."

"Do you remember anything else?" Morgan asked urgently. "What time you saw him, what he looked like, the name on his jumpsuit, anything?"

"It was about 11 a.m.," she said. "I know that for a fact. I was going to my granddaughter's birthday party and my son-in-law was picking me up at 11. I didn't see his face, though. I only saw his back as he was going into the apartment. He had dark hair, kind of like yours Agent Hotchner, and he was about your height as well. He was bigger though, more muscular, like you, Agent Morgan."

"Thank you, ma'am," Hotch replied. "You have been the biggest help we've gotten. If you remember anything else or find out about anyone who might, please, call me any time." He held out a business card to the elderly woman.

"Please find Spencer," she said softly. "He's like one of my grandchildren."

"We will, ma'am," Morgan replied seriously.


	11. Chapter 11

They headed back to the BAU, neither man talking. They had a lead but it wasn't much. Hopefully the others had found something.

"What have you got?" Hotch said as soon as he entered the conference room where Rossi and Prentiss were looking at file after file.

"So far, only cases where someone might have had a problem with Reid that we can find are the Dowd case and the Hankel case," Rossi said. "Garcia is looking into Dowd, since we never really did look into his past, and she's rechecking everything we know about Hankel, even though I doubt anyone would like him enough to kidnap a federal agent for revenge."

"Any family members who had a problem with us in general?" Morgan asked. "They might have targeted Reid because, no offense meant, but he is the most vulnerable looking of all of us."

"No, we really can't find anything," Prentiss said sadly.

"We'll, we have a woman who saw a guy in a baseball cap and greenish-grey jumpsuit who looked like a more muscly version of Hotch, height and hair-wise, entering Reid's apartment on Saturday at 11 a.m.," Morgan informed the others.

"Unfortunately, there aren't any security cameras in the building," Hotch said. "And, being that it's already been four and a half days, we have to consider the possibility—"

"No, man," Morgan said severely. "They aren't dead."

"Morgan," Hotch said quietly. "You know what the statistics—"

"I'm going to see if Garcia has anything," Morgan said as he left the room.

"Hey, Baby Girl," Morgan said softly as he entered the tech's office. "How are you holding up?"

She turned around and Morgan could see that she was still crying.

"Oh, hey now, Baby Girl," Morgan said as he squatted down to her level, "don't cry. We're going to find them. Reid is a strong guy, despite how he looks. He'll protect himself and he would never let anything happen to Henry; he is nuts about that kid. Did you know Reid has a bedroom for Henry in his apartment? He would die for Henry. He's already survived being kidnapped once. And we've got an eye witness who gives us the time the UnSub went into the apartment. We are going to find them."

Garcia hugged one of her best friends and for the second time that day, sobbed into his shoulder.

After a few minutes of Morgan comforting Garcia, she managed to tell him what her she had fund in her searches.

"Well, Chocolate Thunder," she said nasally, "there isn't anything about Hankel that I can find that's not already in the file. There really isn't anything about Dowd other than stuff we already knew either. There is plenty of anti-Fed sentiment on the web but nothing specific to Reid or even the BAU. Mostly it's just people saying how we are spying on them and all kinds of hidden agenda theories."

"Damn," Morgan swore loudly. "I hoped that there would be something."

"I'm still looking, of course," Garcia said, "but I doubt I'll find anything without more information."

"We'll find something, Penelope," Morgan told the usually bubbly blonde. "We have to."

~~~~~CM~~~~~

They searched through every file on every case taken by the BAU since Spencer started. They still couldn't come up with anything.

At around 8:30, Hotch left to go get JJ and Will. He left the team to search for anything and everything that they could find but he wasn't very hopeful. They had absolutely nothing to go on besides a faceless man in a jumpsuit that wasn't supposed to be there.

When JJ and Will reached the SUV, Aaron Hotchner felt his heart go out to the grieving parents. He knew exactly how they were feeling.

JJ wasn't crying but it was obvious that she had been. Her eyes were bright red and there were tear tracks down her face. Will was white as a sheet and his eyes were rimmed with red too.

"JJ," the empathetic man said softly, "Will. I know how you are feeling. I felt the same way when Jack and… When they were taken. But we will get them back. We have an eyewitness who saw the suspected UnSub entering Reid's apartment. The team is working to find out who he is and we are going to get the bastard who took Reid and Henry."

They arrived back at Quantico without any more conversation.

Sadly, the team still hadn't been able to find anything.

No one slept that night. They were all looking through files again or, in Garcia's case, rechecking every database or tool she could think of to try and find something about what had happened too Reid and her godson.

JJ and Will sat on the couch in Hotch's office, not speaking, just holding each other. JJ was sick a few times, overcome with worry for her son and the man she considered family.


	12. Chapter 12

Reid didn't sleep at all that night. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his rapist's face. He could feel every painful violation the man had inflicted upon him. He could feel the warm trickle of blood down his legs. He could feel the hot substance spilling into him as the tormentor finished.

He was glad Henry was asleep. He didn't want the toddler to see the tears streaming down his face.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

When Henry awoke some hours later, Spencer tried to put on a brave and happy face for the child but he could tell quickly that it didn't work. Henry was constantly cuddling him and telling jokes and stories, just like Spencer did when Henry was upset (stories, none of the jokes Spencer knew would entertain a boy not even two years old).

Reid, unsurprisingly, still could not bring himself to eat. He could barely keep from retching with an empty stomach; he had no desire to see what happened on a full stomach.

Henry napped briefly after he ate lunch, leaving Reid to relive his latest attack.

He wondered if this is how Morgan felt when Buford had been assaulting him. Did he feel dirty and ashamed and disgusted with himself? Did he feel betrayed by his body because, in between the pain, it felt good? Did he feel like there was a huge hole inside of him? Did he feel like there was something gone, ripped from him, that he didn't even know existed before it was gone?

These thoughts kept looping through his mind until Henry woke up from his nap. Reid was thankful for the distraction.

Not long after feeding Henry some dinner, that…Reid didn't even think he deserved to be classified as a human but, that man came back. He didn't say a word to either captive, just grabbed the toddler by the arm and dragged him out of there. Reid wanted to badly to fight this man but he knew that would only result in his and Henry's injury (at best) or death (at worst).

When the man returned, he did not speak to Spencer. He shoved Spencer down onto the cot and began removing his captive's shirt. Spencer couldn't quite keep the tears from leaking from his tightly shut eyes.

The sadistic man looked up at his victim's face as he was undoing his pants and saw that the brown haired man's eyes were squeezed closed.

"Now, that just will not do," the man said softly, as though he was talking to someone he cared about but with an edge of anger to his voice. "I think it would be a good idea if you opened your eyes."

Spencer forced his eyes open and his breath hitched as he saw this attacker looking at his injured, naked body like he was a starving man and Spencer was a three course dinner.

Reid could barely manage to keep his eyes open and looking into the other man's as he felt each painful thrust rip through his lower half and his treacherous body responding.

"We'll have to do that again very soon, Agent Reid," the depraved man announced. "I don't know if you noticed, but I had a _lot _of fun. Your eyes are just so expressive!"

"Why are you doing this to me?" Reid exploded in a pained voice. "What did I do?"

"What did you do? What did you do!" the man shouted, anger overtaking his previously calm mood.

The man suddenly rushed back to the cot and, before Reid could react, threw the naked man on the floor.

"You killed my brother, that's what you did!" He kicked Reid in the side. "You shot him," another kick, this time to a very sensitive appendage between his legs, causing Reid to curl up on his side with a moan, "and you killed him and now," a third kick, aimed at Spencer's exposed back, "I am getting vengeance for him!"

The last comment was followed by an excruciating pain and a loud crack as the enraged stomped on the vulnerable, pained man's stick-like leg.

A scream erupted from the man on the floor as he felt the white hot pain shoot up his leg.

The muscular man stood over his victim, breathing heavily.

"I've only ever killed two people in my entire life and neither had a brother!" Reid cried in anguish.

"Philip Dowd!" the other shouted angrily. "He was my half-brother. Our father's name wasn't on my birth certificate but he was my half-brother."

Spencer didn't say anything. The man now had a crazed look in his eyes and Spencer was terrified.

"You have no idea how long it took me to find out about you," the man whispered dangerously. "I didn't even find out that he had been shot and killed by the FBI until 3 weeks after it happened. No one knew about me you see. I was my father's dirty little secret that he never admitted existed. The only person who did accept me as family was Philip! And you killed him. Oh, I looked for years to find out exactly who had killed my brother but I finally did. Then the only thing left was to come here to Virginia and take you. The kid was just an extra and what a great thing it was. He allowed me to manipulate you without any effort."

He stood there, face nearly purple with anger for several minutes, chest heaving. Reid sat there, stock still, and didn't dare say anything about how Philip was shooting people with a sniper rifle just to save them. He didn't even dare breathe too loudly.

Eventually, once the captor's breathing slowed, he left. A few minutes later, he returned, dragging a terrified Henry with him. He released the boy and the child shot over to his godfather on the floor.

The attacker didn't linger. He left as soon as he released Henry, slamming the door and locking it behind him.

Reid managed to pull himself, one handed, to the cot and miraculously balance on his good foot long enough to lie down on the cot. Getting his clothes on, however was another story.

He had Henry bring his clothes to him. He didn't have a problem getting his shirt on and he even managed to wriggle into his underwear (with more than a little pain coming from his broken shin bone) but when it came to the pants, there was no way on earth that he could get them on. If he even tried to put his injured leg through the pant leg, blinding pain shot through his body. Eventually, he settled for just throwing the thin blanket over his legs while he waited for whatever was next to come.


	13. Chapter 13

The profilers were all at a loss. None of them slept that night; they spent the time searching and checking through every case file that Reid had ever worked on.

Garcia kept trying to find new information about Hankel and Dowd since Reid had shot them personally but she still couldn't find anything. She even looked through everything in Reid's personal life (which made her feel incredibly icky) but other than finding out that Reid spent a ton of money at book stores (shocker) and he got most of his takeout from an Chinese place around the corner, she had nothing. Apparently he actually enjoyed Chinese when there was no one to rag on him about not being about to use chopsticks.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Eventually, they stopped looking. There was nothing left to go over. They had been through it all. No one said anything. No one ate the food Hotch had ordered for the team. They all just sat at their desks or in the conference room, trapped in their own thoughts and memories.

"Damn it!" Morgan suddenly yelled, standing up and sweeping a pile of folders off his desk. "There has to be something! We have to be missing something."

"Morgan," Hotch said sternly, "we all are worried over Reid and Henry right now but getting violent isn't going to help any. We've done all we can. Unless we find more evidence, there is nothing more we can do."

"That's not good enough, man," Morgan said, slightly more calm. "If we don't find them soon, their gonna die."

"Morgan, Hotch said quietly as he walked closer to the dark skinned agent, "you know as well as I do that they-" He looked around to make sure JJ and Will were out of earshot before continuing. "You know as well as I do that they are probably already dead. It's been 5 days already. Most kidnapping victims don't survive past one."

Morgan drew in a shaky breath and nodded slightly.

"I know, Hotch," he whispered. "God, I know. But Reid is my best friend. I can't-" his voice broke slightly.

"Go home. Take a shower and take a nap, Morgan," Hotch suggested. "We'll call you if anything happens."

"Like hell, Hotch," Morgan glared. "No way am I going home until we find Reid and Henry." Hotch gave Morgan a hard stare but didn't fight him.

"At least go take a shower in the locker room to clear your head," Hotch said. "That's an order."

Morgan huffed loudly but obeyed.

Roughly an hour after Morgan took his shower, Hotch rushed out of his office. The team members who were currently picking at a late dinner looked up.

"We've got something," he said loudly. "I just got off of the phone with that woman who told us about the man in the jump suit. She remembers talking to a woman outside the building while she was waiting to get picked up. She said the woman took a picture of the apartment building to keep all the buildings she was visiting straight. The man was out there, pulling a large plastic container."

"We got a name?" Rossi asked.

"Katie or Carrie," the supervisor replied, "but the super has to have a full name, at the very least."

"Let's go, Hotch," Morgan said, grabbing a set of keys. "We have to get that picture."

~~~~~CM~~~~~

Hotch didn't think he had ever seen Morgan drive so fast. Luckily, the super had a name, address, and phone number for the woman they were looking. Hotch called her and she was thankfully at home. She lived only 20 minutes away. At least, it would have been 20 minutes if Morgan had been obeying traffic laws. They got there in just over 10.

The woman was waiting by her door, camera in hand, when the Agents arrived. She showed them the picture. Both men silently thanked God when they saw a clear picture of the man's face.

"His van was from the gas company," Carrie Winsor told the agents after they thanked her for being so helpful. "The man and baby that were kidnapped, were they...were they in the container he was pulling?"

"Probably," Morgan said.

~~~~~CM~~~~~

The second they got back to their office, Garcia began searching for the name that went with the face of their kidnapper.

"He probably works for the gas company," Hotch informed the technical analyst as he left the room.

The team was waiting with bated breath when Garcia screamed, "I got him!"

She ran out to the bull pen, talking a mile a minute, "His name is Harold Michaels. He has a rap sheet as long as my arm, starting when he was like, 8. It started beating up neighborhood kids and hurting animals but ended up with assault and two of his girlfriends, I'm assuming exes, have restraining orders on him.

"He just bought a house in Virginia," she said. "The address is already in your phones. Now go get my babies back."

"Garcia," Hotch said as the team gathered weapons, "tell JJ and Will where we are. Do not let them follow us. We'll call you after we get this bastard."

She nodded but the team was already rushing out to the SUVs.


	14. Chapter 14

"What's the address?" Morgan asked as he got into the driver's seat.

"16065 Dumfries Rd. in Montclair," Prentiss told he colleague as she slid into the back seat.

"Oh, God," Morgan swore. He turned on the car, the lights, and the sirens, and peeled out of the parking lot.

"What is it, Morgan?" Rossi asked the obviously distressed agent.

"I sold that house barely a month ago. I sold a house to a kidnapper," Morgan said as he sharply turned the car. "It's 20 minutes away. I can't believe they've been so lose this whole time."

"Tell us about the floor plan, Morgan," Hotch said trying to distract the other agent from his guilt.

Morgan merged onto I-95 and said, "There are two doors to cover. There's a basement with a door in the kitchen, right across from the back door. He could be keeping them there or in the large shed about a quarter of a mile behind the house. The house is kind of a little way into the Prince William Forest and the shed is back in the woods. You can't even find it unless you know it was there. Goddammit, I showed that son of a bitch exactly where it was."

The turned onto Dumfries Rd. and Morgan turned off the lights and sirens. He didn't need anyone to tell him that if the UnSub knew there were cops coming, he would panic and kill Reid and Henry if he hadn't already.

Morgan pulled into the driveway and the team exited the vehicle, sliding on Kevlar vests and drawing their guns.

"Hotch and I will cover the back, Rossi and Prentiss, you cover the front," Morgan whispered. "Give Hotch and I 30 seconds to get into position, then bust down the door."

They all silently crept into position. As soon as Morgan heard the front door crack open, he kicked in the back door, too.

"FBI!" Rossi yelled as they entered the house and saw the UnSub. Harold was in the entrance to the hallway, holding a bottle of beer. He paused for a split second and then darted to the right. All four agents rushed to the doorway of the room he had escaped to but all they managed to catch was a glimpse of him running away through the open window.

Morgan darted out the back door and chased after the fleeing criminal, the rest of the team following close behind him. Morgan was immensely glad that the shed had needed repairs too or he never would have been able to find it in the dark woods.

He saw a light coming from the doorway and he rushed in. He saw Harold Michaels on top of Reid, hands around Reid's neck. Henry was huddled in a corner, sobbing.

Without a second thought, Morgan holstered his gun in one swift motion and, quick as lightning, was at the cot, punching the attacker in the side of the head. The man's head hit the wall and bounced off, falling sideways onto the cement floor. He seemed to be dazed for a split second before lunging at Morgan's legs, trying to take to agent down.

A shot rang out from the doorway and the violent man fell to the floor, blood pooling around his body.

Morgan turned to see Hotch, gun still raised, looking blankly at the man on the floor. The other agent slowly lowered his gun and made his way to Henry who launched himself at his mother's friend.

Morgan turned back to Reid, never so thankful to see those brown eyes.

"Henry?" Reid asked in a raspy whisper.

"Hey, hey, hey," Morgan chastised lightly, "don't talk. Henry is fine. Hotch has him."

"Ambulances are on the way," both men heard Prentiss call.

Morgan looked up to see Prentiss standing in the doorway, looking at her coworker and friend with a mixture of pity and nausea on her face.

When he looked back down at his friend, he saw tears welling up in the young man's eyes.

"Hey now, Pretty Boy," Morgan smiled weakly, "no need to cry. We got you."

Just then the paramedics rushed in and pushed Morgan out of the way. They quickly and efficiently moved Reid to the gurney and out the door of the shed. Morgan followed right behind them.

"I'm gonna ride with Reid," Morgan informed his team members as he climbed into the ambulance. "I'll see you at the hospital."

The paramedics were closing the doors when there was a loud shriek. Henry, it appeared, did not want to go anywhere without his godfather. After a quick check, the paramedics decided that the little boy was fine to ride in the back of Reid's ambulance and a quivering toddler was delivered into his Unca Morgy's arms.

"Unca 'pesser!" Henry shouted, trying to climb onto his beloved godfather. Morgan didn't let him no matter how hard he wriggled, so the baby settled for grasping at Spencer's fingers while the ambulance began to move.

"They founded us, Unca 'pesser," Henry said softly. "They caught the bad guy."

Reid opened his mouth to respond but Morgan answered for him.

"Hey, little man," Morgan told his honorary nephew, "Uncle Spencer's throat is a little sore so he can't talk to you right now but I bet if he could, he would tell you that we are the best team in the world and we always find the bad guy. Just like the super heroes."

Despite almost being killed not 10 minutes ago, Reid managed to muster up a roll of the eyes, as if telling Morgan what a dork he was being.

"Unca 'pesser is the beeeest super hero in the world!" Henry cried, releasing his godfather;s hand to throw his arms wide. "He didn't let the bad guy get me."

"You know what, Henry," Morgan said, giving Reid's unbroken arm a squeeze, "you are absolutely right. Uncle Spencer is the best super hero in the whole world."


End file.
